Centralia, Pennsylvania

[warwick.hoy]

I saw a story on this town on the H Channel's Engineering Disasters. Since then I cannot stop thinking about it. There is something that intrigues me about abandoned towns, dying cities and the decay of where people once "mastered". Not do much the cause of their demise, but the decline itself and deterioration itself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania

I looked it up on Google Earth, and it is just as the wiki article describes. There are only a few buildings dotting otherwise empty blocks. The highway is.....abandoned, I mean it just seems like it would be a crazy place to go check out.

[fettbass]

I actually visited centralia this summer while on a road trip to Washington DC. There's not really all that much left to look at there, there are maybe 2 houses with people living in them (really well maintained), 1 abandoned house, a fire station that looks like it's still in use (with a fire truck and ambulance in the garage) a bunch of empty streets leading to nowhere, and a pile of coal with tiny bits of smoke coming out of it. There are also 2 graveyards, but they look like pretty much any other graveyard. The town's history is more interesting than the place itself at this point. Most of it's been demolished to prevent squatters and the like I suppose.

[armywalaby]

and it continued to burn throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

Wow.

[DeanAngerer]

These are all much cooler.

http://www.oddee.com/item_96462.aspx

[armywalaby]

Yeah, the bit on Gunkanjima is tripping me out...I'm looking at it on google earth now.

[wdinc01]

Originally Posted by fettbass

There are also 2 graveyards, but they look like pretty much any other graveyard.

Sounds like every town I've ever been to in Pennsylvania. Which isn't bad, because I like walking through cemeteries.

My father's told me about Centralia a few times before, although I'm not sure if he ever mentioned the name. Just talked about how there's a mine fire that they haven't been able to put out for quite some time.

[TheXym]

I grew up in Pottsville, PA (home of Yuengling), not far from Centralia, and have been there a few times. When I was in college (early 90's) my dad drove me through a couple times and you could still see smoke in some areas.